How Are They Paying For It?

Over 400,000 Illegal Immigrants Attend Colleges in the United States, but where does the money come from?

The $12 Billion College Mystery: Who’s Paying for Illegal Immigrants’ Education?

Thursday, March 20th, 2025: By Walter Curt.

Over 400,800 illegal immigrants are currently enrolled in U.S. colleges – about 2% of the nation’s higher education student body. This figure, derived from American Community Survey data analyzed by the American Immigration Council, lays bare a staggering financial question. With an average annual cost of around $30,000 per student for tuition, room, and board, this population represents a theoretical $12 billion per year in college expenses. That’s right – twelve billion dollars every year. So the central mystery practically screams out: How are illegal immigrant students paying for college?

Federal student aid is off-limits to these students. U.S. law bars illegal immigrants from receiving federal grants or loans – they can’t even fill out a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) without a valid Social Security Number. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) explicitly states that as undocumented (i.e. illegal) students, they are not eligible for federal Pell Grants, work-study, or federal student loans. In other words, they’re locked out of the billions in federal aid that many American citizens rely on. No FAFSA, no federal loans, no Pell – nothing.

Yet, somehow, hundreds of thousands of these students are finding ways to cover college costs that often exceed the median household income. It doesn’t take a math whiz to sense something doesn’t add up. Are their families writing massive checks out-of-pocket? Are they working illegally under-the-table to pay tuition? Or is fraud part of the equation – for instance, duplicating or sharing Social Security numbers to sneak past FAFSA controls? The latter is a dark possibility that cannot be dismissed. Federal prosecutors have busted identity theft rings involving illegal immigrants obtaining and using Americans’ SSNs– it’s not a stretch to suspect some may misuse that tactic to secure student aid.

If even a fraction of 400,000+ students obtained federal funds by fraudulently using borrowed SSNs, that would represent a massive theft of taxpayer dollars. The truth is, we simply don’t know, and no one in authority seems eager to investigate this $12 billion question.

The Virginia Case Study

To put a finer point on this mystery, let’s zoom in on one state: Virginia. According to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal’s data for Virginia, an estimated 12,897 illegal immigrant students are enrolled in Virginia colleges and universities. That’s nearly 13,000 people attending Virginia institutions without legal status. How are they paying for tuition and living expenses? Virginia provides a revealing case study because the state has proactively tried to expand college access for this population – yet even here, the financing puzzle remains unsolved.

In-state tuition has been unlocked for illegal immigrants in Virginia. In 2020, lawmakers passed H.B. 1547 (the so-called “Virginia Dream Act”), and Virginia became the first southern state to let students without legal status pay in-state tuition rates if they meet certain residency criteria. This law, implemented July 1, 2020, means an illegal immigrant who attended and graduated from a Virginia high school and whose family filed state taxes can be “deemed to be domiciled” in Virginia for tuition purposes – regardless of immigration status. Practically, it slashes their tuition costs dramatically (since out-of-state rates at public colleges are 2-3 times higher). Virginia’s public universities are now open doors tuition-wise for these students.

Not only that, Virginia opened up state financial aid to illegal immigrants the following year. In 2021, the General Assembly passed S.B. 1387, which provides that students eligible for in-state tuition “shall be afforded the same educational benefits, including financial assistance programs… as any other” in-state student. In plain English, Virginia made its state-funded grant and scholarship programs available to illegal immigrants. This includes programs like the Virginia Guaranteed Assistance Program (VGAP), which offers need-based grants to low-income Virginians, and even state-backed student loan programs such as the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program (VTSLP). On paper, Virginia created a pathway for these 12,000+ students to get in-state tuition discounts, state grants like VGAP, and subsidized loans to help finance their education – all funded by Virginia taxpayers.

So, problem solved, right? If illegal immigrants in Virginia can now legally access state aid, one might assume the state’s financial aid coffers are being heavily tapped by this group. But that’s not what the data show. In fact, almost no tax-backed student aid programs are demonstrably being utilized by illegal immigrant students in Virginia. State higher-education officials have virtually no record of these students receiving state financial aid. The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), which tracks college data, does not report any meaningful number of “undocumented” students receiving Virginia’s general fund-supported aid. Likewise, the Virginia Department of Education (which administers VTSLP and other programs) has no public data indicating illegal immigrants are getting those scholarship loans.

Even at Virginia’s flagship universities, there’s scant evidence of illegal immigrant enrollees receiving state-funded awards. A University of Virginia student leader testified that many of his illegal peers were “struggling to afford” basic expenses, highlighting that they largely could not access the usual financial resources. In short, despite new laws saying these students can get state aid, it appears very few actually are. No surge of grant recipients, no noticeable uptick in state loan users – nothing.

This begs the question: Where are these Virginia students getting the money to pay for college in the first place? Even with in-state tuition, a year at a Virginia public university can easily cost $25,000 including living costs. For 12,897 students, that’s on the order of $322 million per year. If they aren’t receiving significant federal aid and apparently aren’t drawing much from state aid programs either, someone or something is filling that $300+ million gap in Virginia alone. Multiply that scenario across other states (California, Texas, New York, etc., each with tens of thousands of illegal immigrant students), and you’re looking at many billions of dollars that are essentially unaccounted for in public ledgers.

Billions in Unexplained Funding Sources

Supporters of these students might argue that many are getting by thanks to private scholarships or charitable organizations. Indeed, there are some nonprofits dedicated to helping undocumented youth (often euphemistically called “Dreamers”) attend college. For example, TheDream.US – the nation’s largest scholarship fund for these students – has provided over 6,000 scholarships in the past seven years. That sounds helpful, but 6,000 scholarships across the whole country is a drop in the bucket when compared to 400,000+ students in need.

Even if other local nonprofits and school-specific programs pitch in, the aggregate private support likely reaches only a fraction of these students. Let’s be extremely generous and imagine half of all illegal immigrant college students (about 200,000 people) somehow receive private or charitable scholarships. And let’s imagine those scholarships average a very hefty $10,000 each (far above what most actually get). That would amount to about $2 billion in NGO or private aid benefitting these students – an impressive sum, yet still only a small slice of the $12 billion annual price tag. This leaves a theoretical $10 billion (or more) per year completely unexplained. Where is that money coming from? Who or what is footing that enormous bill?

Table: Rough calculation of the potential funding gap for illegal immigrant college students nationwide. Even under generous assumptions of private scholarship support, billions of dollars remain unaccounted for annually.

The notion that all these students are somehow self-funding such colossal costs out-of-pocket strains credulity. Many illegal immigrant families are of modest means; the average household income of undocumented immigrant families is well below that of native-born families, making it unlikely they can spare $30k per year per child for college. Some students might work jobs off the books to contribute, but remember: without legal work authorization, they’re limited to low-paying, informal work – hardly enough to cover university bills. Plus, working illegally carries its own risks and is itself against the law.

This leaves us facing a disturbing possibility: Is there widespread financial aid fraud or other illicit funding at play?

It’s a provocative question, but a necessary one. How many of these 400,000+ students might be using borrowed or falsified Social Security numbers to obtain loans and aid they aren’t legally entitled to? How many might be counted as U.S. citizens or legal residents on paper due to identity theft? Federal authorities have acknowledged that identity and benefit fraud by illegal aliens is a real problem, yet we hear crickets when it comes to investigating this in the realm of higher education. Universities certainly aren’t eager to probe too deeply – they benefit from the tuition revenue and may prefer not to ask questions. The federal government and states have not released transparent data on aid awarded to non-citizens lacking legal status. It’s a black box.

Virginia’s experience is telling. The state extended in-state rates and even state aid eligibility to illegal immigrants, but officials can’t point to tax-funded aid dollars actually reaching these students in significant numbers. Where is the money coming from instead? Virginia colleges aren’t eating the cost; someone pays that tuition bill each semester. The silence is deafening, and it raises red flags that should alarm taxpayers and policymakers alike.

Where is the money?

The financial reality of illegal immigrants in higher education is a mystery with implications in the billions. If public funds are indirectly being tapped through fraud or loopholes, it’s a serious issue of law, equity, and public trust. If, on the other hand, private philanthropies are somehow pouring in untold billions under the radar, why is there no record of it? Either scenario – massive fraud or massive untracked private financing – is problematic and begs for scrutiny.

One thing is certain: the numbers don’t lie. You can’t have 400,000+ college students – a population the size of a small city – paying expensive college bills with no federal aid, minimal state aid, and limited private scholarships unless there’s an invisible pipeline of money. At best, it’s coming from family sacrifices and off-the-books work; at worst, it’s coming from falsified identities or improper channeling of funds. Neither scenario justifies the lack of transparency.

In an era where every aspect of college financing for American families is dissected and debated, it’s astonishing that this multi-billion-dollar question goes unanswered. We know exactly how much the average citizen student borrows in federal loans, or how much Pell Grant money goes to each state. But ask “How are illegal immigrants paying for college?” and you get shrugs or platitudes. This is not a partisan issue; it’s about financial accountability and the rule of law. Taxpayers deserve to know if public resources are being quietly diverted or if laws are being broken. And if by some miracle thousands of “Dreamers” have found a legitimate pot of gold to pay for college, let’s see the proof of that too.

In Virginia and across the country, it’s time to follow the money. Colleges and government agencies must come clean on what they know (or don’t know) about how these students are financing their education. The $12 billion higher-ed mystery won’t remain in the shadows forever. Shine a light on it now – and ensure that the principles of fairness, legality, and President Trump’s policy of Radical Transparency are upheld for all students in America.

SCHEV, Higher Ed Immigration Portal – Virginia, and VTSLP are referenced as official sources of policy and data in this analysis.